Ten year old Daniel Pan was run over and killed by a private transit bus while riding his bicycle from the sidewalk into the crosswalk just three doors down from his San Ramon home. Daniel had been riding his bicycle on the sidewalk on the left side of the street. He rode in front of a bus that was making a right turn, and the bus driver did not expect a bicycle rider to cross from her right side. The police report was 100% against the ten year old bicycle rider. All six police officers who responded to the scene blamed the young bicyclist and reported that the bus driver was not at fault. The television reporters all reported that the tragedy was the bicycle rider's fault.
After meeting Daniel's heart-broken parents and sister, we undertook our own in-depth investigation, taking the witnesses back to the scene of the bicycle death and videotaping their interviews. We hired experts in accident reconstruction, human factors such as vision and hearing, bus driving and maintenance, bicycle safety, psychology, and forensic photography. We rented an identical bus and hired a child actor who rode the same bicycle at the scene of the bicycle/bus accident and we reconstructed the accident. We filed in Alameda County, where the negligent bus driver lived.
We took a videotaped deposition of the driver of the bus and learned that she was poorly trained and inexperienced. We took the videotaped depositions of all of the witnesses, and learned in great detail everything they could remember. Armed with all of this information, we were able to demonstrate that the bus driver should have expected Daniel to be riding at this intersection because this was the route that many children took home from school at that same time of day. Most importantly, the bus driver should have seen Daniel and had seven seconds to see and perceive him on the sidewalk, and entering the intersection. Although the bus driver blamed a blind spot at the front of the bus, we measured the Daniel's height and the bicycle, and using the child actor, showed that Daniel was easily visible if the driver had maintained a proper lookout. And we got ready for trial. Finally, just two weeks before trial, the bus company was made accountable.
